Interview with Dr. Michael McBurney, PMC Chair

Interview with Dr. Michael McBurney, PMC Chair

Social media has become an integral part of communication between
health care professionals and their patients. It has also become a
particularly important tool for those in nutrition, who are faced
with the difficult task of ensuring that the public receives
accurate, up-to-date information to counteract the often misleading
or over-simplified reports found in mainstream media. No one knows
the challenges of this task better than ASN member Dr. Michael
McBurney.

Dr. McBurney serves as chair of ASN's Publications Management
Committee, which is responsible for The Journal of Nutrition, The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, and the organization's newest publication,
Advances in Nutrition. He
is also Head of Scientific Affairs for DSM Nutritional Products
Inc., where he is responsible for a nutrition blog called TalkingNutrition.dsm.com,
which is also tweeted via @dsmnutrition and posted
on www.facebook.com/TalkingNutritionDSM.
He recently discussed the influence of social media on nutrition,
his work at DSM, and his time as an active and passionate ASN
member.

Interviewer: How did you
first get interested in pursuing a career in nutrition?

Dr. McBurney: I grew up on a
farm, and throughout my childhood I learned that the nutritional
needs of animals change with life stage. Then, at university,
I chose to study biology with a focus on ecology because I was
interested in the interaction of species. I was fortunate to
work for two years as a technician in a department of animal
science doing research. That really got me interested in
nutrition science and research. As a graduate student, I
studied animal nutrition with Dr. Peter Van Soest, who published a
book called The Nutritional
Ecology of the Ruminant. It introduced me to differences
among species as they forage or browse for food as well as the
interactions between our digestive anatomy and the extent that
nutrients are extracted and absorbed. That led to my
life-long career and interest in nutrition, metabolism, and, for
humans, behaviors that influence our diet.

Interviewer: When and why
did you decide to join ASN?

Dr. McBurney: I became aware
of ASN as a graduate student because we wanted to present our
research
at the ASN Scientific Sessions & Annual Meeting at Experimental
Biology. I joined ASN because it provided better access as a
member.

Interviewer: What aspects of
ASN membership have you found most helpful to your career?

Dr. McBurney: There have
been many aspects of membership I have found incredibly useful to
my career. The first was becoming a member of the editorial board
of The Journal of
Nutrition. That opportunity was really helpful to my
academic career. It gave me the opportunity to attend the annual
editorial meeting and get to know members of the editorial board,
which is a “who's who” of nutrition science research in the
world. As a reviewer, it also gave me the opportunity to
preview new, emerging research. Second, ASN has also always
been a major networking opportunity: meeting other scientists at
the annual meeting and recruiting graduate students,
postdocs.

Interviewer: Can you tell us
a bit about DSM and your role in the field?

Dr. McBurney: DSM is a
Dutch-based company which is one of the world's largest supplier of
vitamins, carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutritional
ingredients. We are a B2B that sells ingredients primarily to
other companies including food, supplement, infant formula, and
pharmaceutical manufacturers who then sell finished products to
consumers. DSM is not widely known by the public because we
do not focus on advertising directly to consumers. It is a
very interesting company because we get to promote nutrition
without having a very specific product to sell to consumers.
As such, we care about improving the nutrition of people without
being biased towards a type of food or dietary supplement.

My role in DSM is in nutrition science and communications, which
means I leverage nutrition science to shape tomorrow's
opportunities. Malnutrition is epidemic in many ways in all parts
of the world, even in individuals who may be overweight and
obese. They may have a caloric imbalance but they are still
not consuming the recommended amounts of the vitamins and minerals
daily.

Coverage of nutrition research is often subject to “hot topics”
that become the “rage” or the current focus, but there are many
other important nutrition issues. I am responsible for the
TalkingNutrition.dsm.com blog. The purpose of this blog is to
provide balance and perspective on new scientific publications. One
of my other responsibilities is to help guide science through
DSM-sponsored activities and to increase awareness of nutritional
inadequacies by helping facilitate conversations that will enable
policy makers and educators to improve nutrition
everywhere.

Interviewer: What motivated
you to start your blog? How has it affected your interaction with
colleagues and the public?

Dr. McBurney: In my role as
a nutrition science advocate, it is important to keep people
abreast of the latest research. Nutrition awareness is often driven
by media coverage of the latest study in isolation. Consumers
should be guided by the preponderance of the evidence, not a single
report. Social media offers a much more immediate and interactive
avenue to offer that balanced perspective. I launched a blog to
help provide content and perspective on studies published in the
last 24 to 48 hours, both externally and internally within
DSM.

Interviewer: How do you feel
social media has affected nutrition? Are there ways that it could
be better utilized?

Dr. McBurney: Social media
is interesting in that the world is becoming much flatter: everyone
can have an opinion and share it. Defining consensus is more
complicated than it used to be, because there are so many channels
to share information. While defragmentation can be helpful, it also
means that all of us have to be much more careful about where we
get our information. Either way, the Internet and social media are
changing the face of our field and of our world.

Interviewer: What are the
challenges facing the industry? What are some potential
solutions?

Dr. McBurney: The changes in
media provide a major challenge and an opportunity to professional
societies like ASN because we are competing to be ‘the' voice of
nutrition science in an increasingly diversified world. I
think that one of the ways that ASN is working towards meeting this
challenge is through its production and promotion of three of the
field's top research-based nutrition journals. Keeping those strong
and ensuring that they remain the journals of choice for nutrition
scientists to publish is critical to the long-term success of our
society. I think ASN needs to continue creating forums for informed
decision-making and contributing to the generation of evidence that
will be used by policy makers. This is critical. As ‘THE'
professional nutrition society in North America, and a force
globally too, ASN plays a very important role in nutrition
research, nutrition communication, and building consensus on best
practices to guide policymakers.

Interviewer: Is there
anything else you would like to tell ASN and its members?

Dr. McBurney: One, I would
like to say “thank you,” because the society has given me far more
than I have given it. Secondly, I would say to members,
existing and potential members, that ASN is a great, democratic
society consisting of a terrific group of people. I encourage
them to become members and to become active in ASN. If they
do that, like me, they will receive much more than they give.